Looking for a new road bike and it needs to be made from carbon fibre to an endurance geometry and have disc brakes? This Pavo GranFondo Disc from Austrian brand Simplon is all those things.
Simplon is an Austrian brand that has just landed in the UK. The brand was formed in 1961 and the name comes from a nearby 2,000m mountain pass in the Valais Alps. As inspiration for names go that's pretty cool.
So what have we got exactly? The frame and fork are made from carbon with a claimed frame weight of 870g. That's race bike territory. There are disc brakes with thru-axles and flat mounts at both ends. The key tubes are oversized, the generous dimensions providing plenty of stiffness, but to ensure there's ample comfort, Simplon has flattened the seat tube and employed Vibrex seatstays to provide some degree of deflection to smooth out vibrations and impacts.
There are some standout details. The bottom bracket area is massive, with generous reinforcing material to ensure there can be no flex when pedalling. The seat clamp is hidden away inside the frame, as are the cables and brake hoses. It's a very nicely finished frame, we're most impressed. A nice paint job and we're liking the colour too, but we're easily swayed by a nice shade of blue.
The attraction of buying a bike from Simplon is that an online bike builder lets you choose the bike of your dreams. Or budget. You can change just about everything getting the right component mix but also ensure the bike fits with different length stems and width handlebars and a saddle you know to match your bum. Spec a bike then deliver arrange it through your local dealer and you'll be riding a bike you've customised. We've haven't done that, we've got a demo bike that would cost £4,699 to replicate, due to the Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset and excellent DT Swiss R24 DB Spline wheels. We've reviewed these wheels in the past and been impressed with their performance.
The build is completed with 25mm wide Schwalbe One tyres, SLR Selle Italia saddle and Simplon branded handlebar, stem and seatpost complete the build. On the scales, it weighs 7.3kg (16lb). That's a very respectable weight for a 56cm carbon endurance bike with disc brakes.
On first inspection, the bike impresses, but it faces some stiff competition in this increasingly crowded endurance bike sector. If you want endurance, carbon and disc brakes, there's the new Specialized Roubaix, Canyon Endurance and Whyte Wessex to name a few examples.
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We’ll find out how the bike rides when we get it out on the road. Watch out for the full review soon. More at www.simplon.com/en
The tyre wear for (car shaped) EVs has to be more due to the heavier weights and the increased torque.
https://carradice.co.uk/collections/bag-supports/products/seatpost-quick-release-saddlebags...
I'm confused by the signage. One sign is no motor vehicles and the other says no cycling, so why isn't it a red circle with all white - No vehicles...
Complaint to the taxi licensing authority? ...
Usual nonsense in the comments...
The bit at the start and end looks like a cycle lane, but the bit they drive on looks just like a patched filter lane for traffic lights.
Hey, you 4 execs helped run a company into the ground and have no jobs anymore... Come work for us because you have great experience in the...
£11.5k for a bike weighing over 8kg that's 2 fingers to customers let alone UCI
I'm going to show my bike a picture of this shed and tell it, "If you don't behave..."
Ex black cab https://twitter.com/KingArtAT/status/1783296299787309088